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Anti-government rioting spreads in Cameroon

YAOUNDE, Cameroon — Anti-government riots paralyzed the Cameroon capital and main port on Wednesday as popular anger exploded over high fuel and food prices and a bid by President Paul Biya to extend his 25-year rule.
Local journalists said one protester was killed by armed police on Wednesday in the southwest town of Buea. The unrest - the worst in over 15 years in this central African oil producing nation - has killed at least seven people since it broke out at the weekend in the port of Douala, a major African shipping hub.
There were unconfirmed reports of several more deaths on Wednesday but no reliable total was immediately available. Local journalists said Cameroonian authorities were instructing state media and hospital staff not to publicize deaths.
The rioting spread on Wednesday to the capital Yaounde after sweeping through western towns in the last four days.
Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in both cities, sometimes using helicopters to drop gas canisters from the air.
State radio appealed for calm, saying the government had agreed with union leaders to make cuts in gasoline and fuel prices, one of the key demands of the protesters. But people expressed outrage at the small size of the reductions.
In Yaounde, bands of stone-throwing youths blocked streets with barricades of burning tires and timber. Businesses and shops closed and parents rushed to fetch their children from schools. Some vehicles were smashed and torched.
Some protesters chanted slogans against Biya, whose announcement last month that he might seek changes in the constitution to prolong his mandate has angered many opposition supporters. "Biya has gone too far, he must go," shouted one demonstrator in Yaounde.
Others chanted: "We're fed up."
In the commercial capital of Douala, a police helicopter dropped tear gas on hundreds of protesters who marched to demand bigger cuts in fuel and food prices. As the marchers scattered in panic on Wouri Bridge, some fell into the river.
Witnesses saw police arrest dozens of protesters, taking them away in trucks. Some were beaten with rifle butts, the witnesses said. Anti-government protests were also reported in Bamenda in the northwest.
Cameroon is the world's fourth largest cocoa producer; no details were immediately available on disruption to shipments.
Cameroon's government and union leaders reached an agreement late on Tuesday to end a taxi drivers' strike which had triggered the rioting and widespread looting in Douala - a hotbed of opposition to Biya - and other towns.
The government agreed to cut the price of a liter of gasoline to 594 CFA francs, or about $1.36, from 600. Similar small reductions were agreed for other fuel products like kerosene.
The riots followed similar protests against the high cost of living in other West African countries after soaring oil prices pushed up prices for energy products and basic foodstuffs.
Biya announced eight weeks ago that he might change the constitution to stay in power when his term ends in 2011. Critics say Biya, 75, could use his party's majority in Parliament to make the constitutional modifications.
The U.S. embassy in Cameroon advised its citizens to avoid travel in the country. "Roadblocks have been erected without notice by both demonstrators and petty criminals on many of the major thoroughfares of Cameroon," it said in a message posted on the embassy Web site.
"Food, fuel and water are increasingly scarce, not only in Douala but in other cities where expectation of shortage has sparked a run on gasoline," it added.

 You can read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/world/africa/27iht-27cameroon.10504780.html 

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